NEW YORK—There have been too many fits and starts in the Rangers' season to declare that they finally figured things out Monday night in a 4-2 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. New York still is the lowest-scoring team in the NHL, still has not posted back-to-back regulation wins since early February, and still sits eighth in the East, by virtue of having played one fewer game than the New York Islanders.

Another recurring theme of the Rangers' season has been excessive reliance on only two players—Rick Nash and Derek Stepan—to score goals. That did not change on Monday, with Stepan scoring twice, Nash scoring once, and linemate Ryan Callahan netting New York's other goal on a four-point night for the captain. There was something different about this game, though.

Mats Zuccarello picked up an assist Monday night, his first since returning from the KHL. (AP Photo)

"I thought all the lines created chances and played really well," said Henrik Lundqvist, who made 26 saves and was the beneficiary of his greatest goal support in a home game since March 5. "We looked good. We looked confident."

If there is one Ranger who particularly brims with confidence, it is the just-back-from-the-KHL Mats Zuccarello, who took some Twitter ribbing from Lundqvist upon his return—the Vezina Trophy winner made a Hobbit joke about his diminutive teammate—and responded by tweeting that he could score at will on Lundqvist.

Zuccarello has returned to New York with the objective of providing an offensive boost, and he is finding early chemistry with two of the Rangers' underachieving stars, Marian Gaborik and Brad Richards.

"That's two great players, you can't complain playing with two class players," Zuccarello said. "Richie's a smart player, and Gabby is the same, and got great speed. I just have to get those guys the puck and try to contribute what I can do with some energy and a little bit of speed."

On Monday night, Zuccarello led all Rangers forwards with a plus-9 Corsi rating (even strength shot attempts for and against), while Gaborik and Richards each were plus-8.

"Even in Montreal (a 3-0 loss on Saturday), they made some plays," Rangers coach John Tortorella said. "The thing I like about their game tonight, they not only made plays, they forechecked, they were around the puck, and battled along the wall. I think Gabby, I thought he had some really good shifts in Montreal and had more, consistently, in this game. And Zucc, just, he's a smart player—I guess not that smart with three penalties—but as far as with the puck, he sees it. He sees it."

Maybe it comes with being 5-foot-7, but Zuccarello has always seemed to see the ice a little bit differently. The 25-year-old Norwegian has played just 54 games in his NHL career, and it seems that he is figuring out how to get his vision to mesh with what his teammates see.

"He's just a smart hockey player," Richards said. "He makes smart, good little plays that for a lot of people, it goes unnoticed. When you're playing with him, you notice those. It's a lot different when you play with someone who gets you those little three, four-foot passes, when you're skating and at speed, especially those center icemen, coming up with the wingers. It's a lot different when you're getting the puck as you're moving instead of at your feet. That's why we were able to create stuff through the neutral zone tonight, and get Gabby some pucks wide. Like I said, you don't see it every second of the game, but playing with him, you really notice it."

The funny thing was that the play that got Zuccarello on the scoresheet with his first assist since returning to the NHL was not crisp at all. Coming out of the penalty box following a high-sticking minor, Zuccarello chipped the puck away from defenseman Tobias Enstrom, Callahan was able to grab it out of the air, then skated in with Zuccarello on a 2-on-1 before deking Ondrej Pavelec to the ice and scoring on the backhand.

Zuccarello took two other penalties, as Tortorella mentioned—one for high sticking and the other for closing his hand on the puck. The latter was a consequence of Zuccarello having played this season in the KHL before returning to Broadway and being unaware of the NHL rule change disallowing such plays in the offensive zone.

The Rangers were able to kill off that penalty and laugh about it afterward. They will be able to have a lot more smiles if Zuccarello indeed proves to be the elixir that Gaborik and Richards need.